The Origin of the Universe

“In the beginning”...was God, or the universe? Many people refuse to believe in God because they can’t fathom how an entity could be eternal. Yet scientists used to teach that the universe itself was eternal—it just always was—and atheists were content to believe that. So if you believe it is possible for something to be eternal (such as the universe), to be logically consistent you would also have to admit it’s possible that there is an infinite, omnipotent Being who is eternal.

These days, science has proven that the universe had a beginning. To the creationists’ claim that the universe was begun by God, atheists naturally ask, “Then who made God?” It’s a very logical question. According to the Law of Cause and Effect, every effect must have a cause. In other words, everything that happens has a catalyst; everything that came into being has something that caused it. Things don’t just happen by themselves.

Since the evidence proves that the universe is not eternal, scientists say it began in an event known as the Big Bang. The Big Bang theory claims that “nothing” suddenly became time, space, matter, and energy, forming a vast, complex, orderly universe composed of over 100 billion galaxies and containing an estimated trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion tons of matter. Now scientists have an even greater dilemma: Where did the initial matter come from? How could something come from nowhere, by itself? Second, what caused it to go “bang”? What was the catalyst that sent the particles flying?

Famed cosmologist Andrei Linde, professor of Physics at Stanford University, is honest about the evolutionists’ dilemma:

"The first, and main, problem is the very existence of the big bang. One may wonder, what came before? If space-time did not exist then, how could everything appear from nothing? What arose first? The universe or the laws determining its evolution? Explaining this initial singularity—where and when it all began—still remains the most intractable problem of modern cosmology."

Remember, if a Coke can coming into existence by itself is obvious nonsense, why is the Big Bang theory any more “scientific”?

Searching for answers, scientists recently announced that they may have the puzzle pieces to the fundamental mystery of the universe. Using a NASA telescope, they think they’ve figured out the cosmic question of where we came from. Their conclusion? According to Ciska Markwick-Kemper of the University of Manchester in England, “In the end, everything comes from space dust...that was belched from dying stars” about 8 billion light-years from here.

The dilemma is, no matter how far away or how long ago scientists estimate the very first dust particle came from, the logical question remains: Then where did that dust come from?

It’s unavoidable—at some point, you’re forced to conclude that there must be an uncaused cause (a “First Cause”) that brought everything else into being. This conclusion agrees with logic, reason, and scientific laws. In all of history, there has never been an instance of anything spontaneously appearing out of nowhere. Something being created from nothing is contrary to all known science.

In short, the evolutionary view cannot offer a logical, scientific explanation for either the origin or the complexity of the universe. There are only two choices: Either no one created everything out of nothing, or Someone—an intelligent, omnipotent, eternal First Cause—created everything out of nothing. Which makes more sense?

Adapted from How to Know God Exists (Bridge-Logos).